Talking about inclusion with the NDIA

Our Towards Inclusive Practice website launched in April 2023 and the response across the country has been fantastic. The website and resources have been shared widely across many government departments and large organisations.

The project aims to share ideas and tips to help governments around Australia do work that is more inclusive and accessible for people with an intellectual disability. It was co-designed in partnership with a national network of people with intellectual disability who were employed as Inclusion Advisors.

Their work has not stopped though, and we were happy to receive this report from our friends at SACID in South Australia about how they have been promoting Towards Inclusive Practice with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). Thank you to Mel Cheung, Towards Inclusive Practice project facilitator at SACID and to SACID Inclusion Advisors Gavin, Jo, Libby and Thomas for your great advocacy on inclusion.

Jo and Libby preparing for their talk to NDIA staff in South Australia

This month Jo, Thomas, Gavin, Libby and I presented to the NDIA about the Towards Inclusive Practice project.

We presented to 2 different groups online on Teams:

• Jo and Libby presented to over 80 people from the NDIA Australian Compensation Branch.
• Thomas and Gavin presented to 8 NDIA senior leaders from around the state.

We shared what the TIP project was about – tips on what the government can do to be more accessible and inclusive.

We also gave the NDIA team a sneak peek at 2 short videos from the project, including the Power and Trust films.

It was the first presentation Jo and Libby had done to people in government.

‘I felt honoured and they [the NDIA staff] took on what we said’, said Libby.

The NDIA asked what our final message was and Libby and Jo said ‘Listen to us, we are the boss, disability or no disability!‘

Gavin and Thomas said that they felt like they were listened to, and the NDIA senior leaders took note of what was said. They asked a lot of good questions.

Thomas and Gavin also shared some of their personal experiences with NDIA and what the NDIA could do better.

Gavin and Thomas said we should talk to more people in government, starting with the councils, and make more connections!

The videos we shared from the project were very powerful and effective. We felt that it strongly sends the message to people in government of what they can do to be more understanding and be more inclusive of people with disability.

We have since done another session with 25 NDIA Directors and Assistant Directors of across the country.

We look forward to sharing more of the resources from the TIP project 😊

Mel Cheung, SACID

To access the full range of free Towards Inclusive Practice resources visit: www.inclusionaustralia.org.au/towards-inclusive-practice/